George: Long gone away

Three times this year, Muslims in Tennessee have announced plans to build new mosques, which are worship centers akin to Christian churches or Jewish temples. And three times, they’ve generated enough controversy to sate a tabloid-news cycle for days.

In Brentwood, organizers withdrew their mosque proposal after a small group spread hysterical rumors about ties to extremist groups and terrorism, making it difficult for the organizers to contemplate a protracted rezoning battle with the city, not to mention actual worship in such a hostile environment.

At a public meeting to discuss plans for a new mosque in Murfreesboro, a confused middle-aged white woman named Karen Harrell actually said in public, for all to hear: “Everybody knows they are trying to kill us. People are really concerned about this. Somebody has to stand up and take this country back.”

And now in Antioch, a group of activists led by school board member Karen Johnson are trying to curb the Islamic Center of Tennessee’s bid to rehab into a mosque the Bell Forge Theater — for which Islamic Center leaders have already contracted and raised, they say, $1.18 million in cash of the $1.55 million asking price — by petitioning the seller to reconsider the contract and allow Nashville State Community College to move in instead.

“I want to make it clear, it’s not an issue about the mosque, because there was another church that also bid on the property,” Johnson told The City Paper last week (the third bidder was an Assembly of God church). “It’s more an issue that we really need to have Nashville Tech in the community.”

But in an email to residents that accompanied the petition, Johnson was more direct: “Even though the owners of Bell Forge Theater, Carmike Theaters, Inc. of Columbus, Georgia have initially signed a contract with the Islamic Center of Tennessee, we hope to convince them that the community would be better served with an educational facility and to allow NSCC another chance to bid on the property,” she wrote.

Or, to translate: If you’d rather not have a mosque in your neighborhood, sign this nuanced petition that requests re-bidding of a property already under contract and we might just be able to work up the right amount of outrage. The petition bore 1,000 signatures as of Wednesday.

This is difficult territory. We have no choice but to take Johnson, a longtime Antioch activist, at her word when she says she believes Nashville State would be better for her neighborhood than a mosque. She probably genuinely thinks that, and she might be right in the end.

But by using a petition to make the point, Johnson and other activists are harnessing the power of people with a pure anti-Islam sentiment, like the prattle of a once-proud brute whose knees have finally given out and whose back has long been bad.

It’s a devious and shrewd political move, and it’s much more palatable to the general population — many of whom likely harbor some low-level fear or misunderstanding about Muslims but would never say so — than blurting out, “They are trying to kill us.”

Perhaps Johnson doesn’t realize, in her exaltations about revitalizing the neighborhood with a community college rather than a major religious institution, that a mosque might have a tremendous economic effect on the neighborhood.

On average, American Muslims are younger and more educated than the rest of the population and, according to a 2007 study by JWT, the country’s largest advertising firm, wield a buying power of about $170 billion. Mainstream companies like Burger King and Walmart have taken note and launched ad campaigns specific to Muslim populations.

The fact that a Christian church also bid on the property offers convenient cover. Johnson and the others have said they’d have the same objection to the church. Of course, they’ve not been given the chance to publicly oppose the building of a Christian church in a city with more than 1 per 1,000 people. I don’t imagine that’s a battle many are eager to wage.

Meanwhile, according to what The City Paper has reported thus far, Johnson and other activists have yet to offer the Islamic Center of Tennessee — which has a signed contract for this property — any compromise in a neighborhood that is, for example, home to an economically depressed shopping mall. The message Muslims have been given by their soon-to-be neighbors is clear: “Go away.”

Coming from a neighborhood seeking its own new beginning, that’s particularly ugly.

33 Comments on this post:

By:dargent7 on 7/12/10 at 6:01

Osama bin laden and 15 of the hijackers were Saudi. All 19 were Muslim. All were reported to say in Arabic, "Allah is Great" as the planes flew into the Twin Towers. KSM, the mastermind, is a Muslim.
I cannot even begin to understand how people of faith, any faith, could do what they did.
I guess the thought of the 78 virgins in their concept of "heaven" is a motivating factor, but that's even a more insane idea.
It will take America decades to embrace the Islamic religion and only if they stop the suicide bombings hate talk, killing the "infidels".

By:blackolive on 7/12/10 at 6:08

I am so very sorry that the same rights given to all other religious groups in our country has been denied, again and again, to the Muslim community in Middle TN. They are being denied the permits to build mosques because some "professed" Muslim's are terrorists. This is akin to calling all southerners - members of the KKK.

By:govskeptic on 7/12/10 at 6:32

Why does the author think the murfreesboro "confused, middle age white
woman" was so incorrect in her statement? Based on much of our recent
history I'd say she pretty well had it correct!

By:denriddy on 7/12/10 at 6:33

Stephen George: "Three times this year, Muslims in Tennessee have announced plans to build new mosques, which are worship centers akin to Christian churches or Jewish temples."

Your primary premise is 180-degrees away from anything resembling truth. Muslim mosques are political and military outposts of Universal Jihad, and are not at all "akin to Christian churches or Jewish temples." Congressional candidate Vijay Kumar has a brilliant essay on that exact subject that has gone viral around the world, and it's a shuddering embarrassment that the City Paper has its head so far in the quicksand of progressivism that it is pathologically incapable of telling anything close to the truth.

Here is a link to Mr. Kumar's article at the Atlas Shrugs web site, and it should be required reading in our schools (not that children in schools today learn how to read):

http://tinyurl.com/2afbb92

And Mr. Kumar's blog, where PDF versions are available for distribution:

http://tinyurl.com/29pfzuv

It begins:
------------------------------

THE MUSLIM MOSQUE: A STATE WITHIN A STATE
by Vijay Kumar

THE KAABA IN MECCA WAS NOT BUILT AS AN ISLAMIC MOSQUE. It was an ancient temple that had been shared by polytheists, Christians, Jews, and Hindus, honoring 360 different deities. In 630 A.D. the Kaaba was captured by Islam in its military invasion and conquest of Mecca.

On the day of its capture, Muhammad delivered an address at the Kaaba in military dress and helmet, according to Ayatullah Ja’far Subhani in his book, “The Message”:

“Bear in mind that every claim of privilege, whether that of blood or property is abolished . . . I reject all claims relating to life and property and all imaginary honors of the past, and declare them to be baseless . . . A Muslim is the brother of another Muslim and all the Muslims are brothers of one another and constitute one hand as against the non-Muslims. The blood of every one of them is equal to that of others and even the smallest among them can make a promise on behalf of others.” —Muhammad

Muhammad’s address at the Kaaba overthrew the Meccan government and declared all of Islam, anywhere in the world, to be a political and military state against all non-Muslims, regardless of the non-Muslims’ political, geographical, or national origins.

“If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah), never will it be accepted of him.” —Quran 3:85
---------------------------
Read the rest at the links above.

Put down the opium pipe of progressivism, Stephen George, and stop telling delusional lies to the public.

By:willtw on 7/12/10 at 7:46

All of this blather about Muslims this and Muslims that. Christians and Jews are taught by their familes, their community and by history to love and respect others....Muslims choose to use this "kindness", as a weakness against those who extend the palm of peace. In the Quran, there are 412 statements regarding maiming and killing the unbeliever It doesn't say radical this or religious that...Any Muslim will lie and cheat to prove their point. It is allowed in their religion. It is a "cult" set of beliefs not a religion as we know it. Mosques are used worldwide as a center of destruction. Muslims fear unbelievers, not actually knowing what their very faith stands for! It is pushed aside as "radical" when someone blows up a bus load of school kids or injures hundreds in a market. Want this for Amnerica? Not only no, but HELL NO!!!! A belief that is destructive that it's followers cherish death over life does not belong in this community, this state or this nation!

By:fishfry on 7/12/10 at 7:54

"akin to churches and temples"??? Have you read the Koran? They have it in English you know. Mosques are as a rule a meeting place for MEN only where radical thinking, like "death to infidels" ( which is any Gentile or Jew) is taught in many different genres. This religion is not one of peace and these people are using the freedoms that our parents and grandparents, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles died for, to their benefit, with a complete different agenda than Christians or Jews. Sorry Mr. George...you are wrong and way off base on this one!

Do we want Sharia law? Could you kill your own daughter if she had an affair, or dated an 'infidel'? Could you kill your sister for the same reasons? Is this Christian or Jewish religious teaching? Wake up and smell the coffee, George!!!

By:willtw on 7/12/10 at 7:57

BlackOlive....why is it necessary to have your race in your title here? No one here is speaking about race! You need to read a LOT more about the Muslim beliefs, talk to Muslim conversions to Christian, and why they live in this country! Presuming you are a female, how in this world can you sanction/approve a set of beliefs that relegate women to second and third class citizens? Muslims are stuck in the stone age of history...Maybe in Britain, Canada or France they buy into this tripe but by your reply herein, shows us that you buy, hook, line and sinker the things Muslims want you to believe! Forget about the mosques, LOOK AT THE CORE BELIEFS...Use a bit of that public education and learn....

By:dargent7 on 7/12/10 at 8:01

....one more thing: The "jihad" is scarey enough. But there is a tenet, a core belief, an edict, that Muslims HAVE TO and are ENCOURAGED to LIE to transform everyone into the Islamic faith and convert to being a Muslim.
How's that for a religion to be a part and proud of?

By:AmyLiorate on 7/12/10 at 8:23

Blackolive is right.

What if you denied a Christian church to build the same building? I could cite fundamentalist "Christians" who have shot abortion doctors, witch trials, snake handlers and poison drinking, bombed abortion buildings, etc.

If you mention "Jihad" aspect then look back to the Spanish Inquisition and crusades.

Get real people and start using your brains! If you don't allow them to freely practice their religion then what will they do?

Go underground? Practice their faith in various small areas, led by someone who can prove they were oppressed? Are some people from the fringe of society drawn to groups like that?

By:SargeE5 on 7/12/10 at 8:31

Stephen George,
You sir, obviously pay no attention to Muslims. Islam, or Sharia. You obviously have not read the Qur'an, becasue its apparent you have no idea what you are talking about. As a journalist, I suggest you try doing some research on those you are attempting to defend. Here is a fact, a Muslim Mosque, once built, becomes soveriegn Islamic territory. In that mosque, and on the Mosque property, Muslims are not required to obey any man made laws. Muslims are also taught not to obey man made law anywhere, for that matter. Another thing you need to be aware of Mr. George, there is nothing about a mosque that makes it akin to a Christian Church, or Jewish Temple. Keep in mind sir, that Islam is the only religion in the world today that encourages it's followers to convert infidels, or eliminate them. Just so you know Mr. George, unless you are a Muslim, and your family are Muslim, you are then one of us Infidels. You want a Mosque, move out of this Christian nation and head to Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, take your pick, as there are many Mosques there for you worship in. If you stay in America, at least educate yourself about those you defend.

By:willtw on 7/12/10 at 8:46

Thanks for that, Sarge. Not many people have spent time in the Middle East, seen the poverty and destruction....I cannot believe women on this blog try and take the "high road" and try to compare the teachings of Christian/Judeo principles. You simply cannot compare open religion here in America with Muslim anything abroad. To prove their point, the blogger above you demeans anyone that would oppose or voice dissention about the Muslims and blames it on a lack of education....The reality is such people have no clue! People in sections of Middle Tennessee, mostly descendents of immigrants came to this country with high expectations and a desire for a better life....How many Nashviliians do we know that move to the Middle East to experience a better life? I know of none....People, do not get hung up on the rhetoric of what Muslims want you to understand....Most Muslims do not know themselves. READ THE BOOK! Go to the Middle East in uniform and see the maimed children, walk into a market with body parts strewed all over and then TELL ME ABOUT THE GODLESS BELIEF called Muslimism...!

By:Captain Nemo on 7/12/10 at 8:49

This is a country of Religious Freedom, unless you something other than Christian. Then you an infidel.

By:cantbreeth on 7/12/10 at 8:54

For 2 years I drove past the mosque on 4th Avenue and a sign on the back door that said "Women's Entrance" and was infuriated every time. I often wondered what would have happened had the sign said "Black Entrance". I don't blame anyone for not wanting that environment of hate in their neighborhood.

By:brrrrk on 7/12/10 at 9:08

cantbreeth said

"For 2 years I drove past the mosque on 4th Avenue and a sign on the back door that said "Women's Entrance" and was infuriated every time. I often wondered what would have happened had the sign said "Black Entrance". I don't blame anyone for not wanting that environment of hate in their neighborhood."

Just curious, have you heard of the Promise Keepers; an all men's religious organization where women are helpmates, and children are the property of their parents?

By:AmyLiorate on 7/12/10 at 9:12

Cantbreeth, what harm did that sign do to you?

No one is forcing you to go through that door.

There is a church on Franklin road near Concord that has two front doors. Do you know why? Does that church make you mad? There are many many more just like it.

Or is your idea that the Muslims somehow won't be able to change like most of our other churches did 100 years ago?

By:Captain Nemo on 7/12/10 at 9:20

I find that all religions or flawed and have been perverted to some degree, because that are maneuver by weak and dubious men.

By:Kosh III on 7/12/10 at 10:23

" I drove past the mosque on 4th Avenue and a sign on the back door that said "Women's Entrance" and was infuriated every time. I often wondered what would have happened had the sign said "Black Entrance".

Some Jewish synagogues still segregate by sex. Certainly the ancient Temple in Jerusalem kept the two separate.

--------------------------

"not required to obey any man made laws."
Probably because they read what St Peter said in Acts:
"we ought to obey God rather than man"

By:gdiafante on 7/12/10 at 10:32

That's weird, I thought the Constitution gave us freedom of religion. Unfortunately, it doesn't give us freedom from ignorance.

By:AmyLiorate on 7/12/10 at 10:36

Sarge - have you ever heard of sanctuary?

It's a good thing. You see a Catholic priest might take you in and help you, but if you're not really a good person then he has the option to allow the authorities in to haul you away.

Sarge wrote: "Here is a fact, a Muslim Mosque, once built, becomes soveriegn Islamic territory. In that mosque, and on the Mosque property, Muslims are not required to obey any man made laws."

Here is where we draw the line:
"Muslims are also taught not to obey man made law anywhere, for that matter. "

BOOM - at the point someone else is trying to dictate laws in the public then and there it can not be tolerated!

Up to that point what they do in their church building is their right. But we can not allow any group to have their own special laws intertwined with our larger society.

You can disagree but if so I find it hard to believe you are pro-freedom and pro-American.

By:vinemp on 7/12/10 at 11:15

@willtw: Public education indeed; they're called the Five Pillars.

@dargent7: 'jihad' refers to the spiritual inner struggle of the individual against his or her own weaknesses and sins, not some "holy war" against non-Muslims. You'll eventually recognize that angry idiots have little notion of what it means to be Jewish, Christian, or Muslim. (That's why they're well-represented in each tradition!)

@fishfry: The mosque is completely synonymous with the church (building) or synagogue, and perhaps even the gurudwara, as a temple for worshiping the One True God.

@denriddy: You seem quite fond of your own delusions. Clearly, Mr. Kumar is seeking political office in a community that is more inclined to suspect him of ties to a terrorist organization than to support his civic endeavors. Just as obvious is your willingness to jump at demonizing Islam, which implicitly accepts the other two Abrahamic religions. I daresay your research and reasoning skills seem as elementary as the children you mean to disparage.

Are you really my neighbors? What good examples you are of persons lacking (social) education and (academic) instruction--both so easily remedied, if you had but a mustard seed of courage in you!

By:vinemp on 7/12/10 at 11:31

@gdiafante: Yin and yang, my friend. I do not think that even the best among us could sufficiently appreciate our potential for compassion and good works without the malcontents and spiteful dregs against which to compare it. In their capacity for spiritual/intellectual/social indolence and insatiable cruelty the Provider's grace, and the accompanying mandate of the Believer to "love thy neighbor", is given purpose.

By:vinemp on 7/12/10 at 1:29

@cantbreeth: What wondrous superhuman vision you have that you can both drive by the front of that mosque at 30-40mph and read a sign at its rear. Either you possess a peculiar imagination or you are a bold liar.

By:dargent7 on 7/12/10 at 6:37

To Tenn. Muslims and practioners of Islam: Whatever! Work it out with the "locals" in the Middle East".
America is NOT your learning curve and teaching podium.

By:dargent7 on 7/12/10 at 6:42

AmyL: You are denser than a box of rocks. The sign, "Women Enter Here" does not offend you?
Guess what? In Detroit, in the 50's , "White's ONLY" at bathrooms, seating in Kresge's, drinking fountains that had two spigots, "Colored", was one, "Whites" was the other. Both offended me. And I was 5 years old.

By:Vuenbelvue on 7/12/10 at 7:59

Say no to the US State Department for immigrating these people, especially with a 15% or higher unemployment rate and a deficit of $14 trillion plus. The US State Department has a budget of $50 billion dollars for some reason that has not been explained. They trample State's Rights by forcing immigrants to any city they desire. Have you or anyone you know sponsored a muslim for citizenship? No. Of course not. It's forced by the Federal Government. And you Mr. Editor, Stephen George, write a letter of sympathy to the 65 or more dead, who were minding their own business watching a sporting event in Uganda. I was a infantrymen in Vietnam. Explosives blow off legs, thighs, arms, shoulders, hips, parts of faces and people survive. Gruesome survival but medicine makes a decision to save them. So if the mighty muslims didn't kill them they may wish they were dead.

By:denriddy on 7/13/10 at 6:37

AMY LIORATE: "If you mention 'Jihad' aspect then look back to the Spanish Inquisition and crusades."

Well, anyone who wasn't an ignorant twit would have to, given that both the Inquisition and the Crusades were a defenseive response to Islamic Jihad against Europe. If it hadn't been for the Crusades, there would be no United States or freedom of speech allowing you spout your ignorance of the facts. You would be wearing a burka, unable to read and write at all.

I'm sure your ignorance of the facts extends to your being ignorant of the fact that there were two Inquisitions spanning 500 years, so I can only guess you're referring to the Spanish Inquisition. Even as unjust as it was, a total of maybe 2,500 people were sentenced to death.

In less than three hours, Muslims slaughter almost 3,000 innocent men, women, and children in the World Trad Center--your fellow Americans, without warning, without motivation, without mercy.

According to the book "Growth of the Muslim Population in Medieval India," an estimated 80 million Hindus were killed by invading Muslims between 1000 A.D. and 1500 A.D.

The web site Political Islam has compiled the best estimates it could find of deaths from Islamic jihad. It includes 120 million Africans, 60 million Christians, 10 million Buddhists, and approximately 270 million Jews.

Where are your self-righteous, holier-than-thou, liberal whining tears for those people?

AMY LIORATE: "Get real people and start using your brains!"

You are a pathetic piece of humanity.

By:denriddy on 7/13/10 at 6:48

AMY LIORATE: "is your idea that the Muslims somehow won't be able to change like most of our other churches did 100 years ago?"

Of course they aren't going to change! They haven't changed in 1400 years of Universal Jihad against the world! They can't change!

If you knew anything at all about the subject you spew about, you would know that Muslims believe that the hate screed they live by is divine and immutable!

Tell you what: just edit this for them to "change" it and make it more "politically correct" and liberal and loving, and take into your local mosque and give it to them. Let us all know what happens:

"If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah), never will it be accepted of him." --Quran 3:85

"O ye who believe! take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them." --Quran 5:51

"Fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)" --Quran 9:5

"Fight those who believe not in Allah...until they pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." --Quran 9:29

"Allah's right on His slaves is that they should worship Him (Alone) and should not worship any besides Him." --Muhammad Sahih Bukhari 4:52:108, Narrated Mu'adh

"When We decide to destroy a population, We (first) send a definite order to those among them who are given the good things of this life and yet transgress; so that the word is proved true against them: then (it is) We destroy them utterly." --Quran 17:16

"I was ordered to fight all men until they say 'there is no god but Allah.'" --Muhammad's farewell address, 632

"I have been ordered to fight with the people till they say, 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah.'" --Hadith Sahih Bukhari 4:52:196 Narrated Abu Huraira

"He who fights so that Allah's Word (Islam) should be superior, then he fights in Allah's cause." --Hadith Sahih Bukhari 1:3:125 Narrated Abu Musa

"I asked the Prophet [Muhammad], 'What is the best deed?' He replied, 'To believe in Allah and to fight for His Cause.'" --Hadith Sahih Bukhari 3:46:694 Narrated Abu Dhar

"And fight them till there is no more affliction (i.e. no more worshiping of others along with Allah)". --Hadith Sahih Bukhari 6:60:40 Narrated Nafi'

"Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers." --Quran 3.151

"I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them." --Quran 8:12

"Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know." --Quran 8:60

By:denriddy on 7/13/10 at 7:04

AMY LIORATE: "But we can not allow any group to have their own special laws intertwined with our larger society."

They don't want Sharia law "intertwined" with our manmade laws! They care nothing for manmade laws, including our Constitution! Their intention is to overthrow our laws, our Constitution, and our government and install an Islamic theocracy where the Quran is the only constitution--just as it is in Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam!

"The Believers are but a single brotherhood." --Quran 49:10

"A Muslim has no nationality except his belief." --Syed Qutb

"Islam wishes to destroy all states and governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and program of Islam regardless of the country or the nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is to set up a State on the basis of its own ideology and program." -- Syed Abul A'ala Maududi

You are utterly ignorant of this subject. Please take this wise old piece of advice advice, for your own sake: "It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

By:denriddy on 7/13/10 at 7:11

vinemp: "'jihad' refers to the spiritual inner struggle of the individual against his or her own weaknesses and sins, not some "holy war" against non-Muslims."

There, ladies and gentlemen, is a supreme, beautiful example of the Muslim practice of taqiyya: lying to the infidels to advance the purposes of Islam.

Here is the truth behind the lie--again:

"Lying is wrong, except in three things: the lie of a man to his wife to make her content with him; a lie to an enemy, for war is deception; or a lie to settle trouble between people." —Muhammad; Sira: Ahmad, 6.459. H

"Let us grin in the face of some people while our hearts curse them." —Abu Darda

"If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah), never will it be accepted of him." --Quran 3:85

"O ye who believe! take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them." --Quran 5:51

"Fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)" --Quran 9:5

"Fight those who believe not in Allah...until they pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." --Quran 9:29

"Allah's right on His slaves is that they should worship Him (Alone) and should not worship any besides Him." --Muhammad Sahih Bukhari 4:52:108, Narrated Mu'adh

"When We decide to destroy a population, We (first) send a definite order to those among them who are given the good things of this life and yet transgress; so that the word is proved true against them: then (it is) We destroy them utterly." --Quran 17:16

"I was ordered to fight all men until they say 'there is no god but Allah.'" --Muhammad's farewell address, 632

"I have been ordered to fight with the people till they say, 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah.'" --Hadith Sahih Bukhari 4:52:196 Narrated Abu Huraira

"He who fights so that Allah's Word (Islam) should be superior, then he fights in Allah's cause." --Hadith Sahih Bukhari 1:3:125 Narrated Abu Musa

"I asked the Prophet [Muhammad], 'What is the best deed?' He replied, 'To believe in Allah and to fight for His Cause.'" --Hadith Sahih Bukhari 3:46:694 Narrated Abu Dhar

"And fight them till there is no more affliction (i.e. no more worshiping of others along with Allah)". --Hadith Sahih Bukhari 6:60:40 Narrated Nafi'

"Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers." --Quran 3.151

"I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them." --Quran 8:12

"Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know." --Quran 8:60

By:localboy on 7/14/10 at 12:27

"By: denriddy on 7/13/10 at 7:37

AMY LIORATE: "If you mention 'Jihad' aspect then look back to the Spanish Inquisition and crusades."

Well, anyone who wasn't an ignorant twit would have to, given that both the Inquisition and the Crusades were a defenseive response to Islamic Jihad against Europe. If it hadn't been for the Crusades, there would be no United States or freedom of speech allowing you spout your ignorance of the facts. You would be wearing a burka, unable to read and write at all.

I'm sure your ignorance of the facts extends to your being ignorant of the fact that there were two Inquisitions spanning 500 years, so I can only guess you're referring to the Spanish Inquisition. Even as unjust as it was, a total of maybe 2,500 people were sentenced to death.

In less than three hours, Muslims slaughter almost 3,000 innocent men, women, and children in the World Trad Center--your fellow Americans, without warning, without motivation, without mercy.

According to the book "Growth of the Muslim Population in Medieval India," an estimated 80 million Hindus were killed by invading Muslims between 1000 A.D. and 1500 A.D.

The web site Political Islam has compiled the best estimates it could find of deaths from Islamic jihad. It includes 120 million Africans, 60 million Christians, 10 million Buddhists, and approximately 270 million Jews.

Where are your self-righteous, holier-than-thou, liberal whining tears for those people?

AMY LIORATE: "Get real people and start using your brains!"

You are a pathetic piece of humanity."

And you, by your tone, unfortunately condemn your opinion (and some pertinent facts) to insignificance for some readers. Pity.

By:vinemp on 7/15/10 at 7:52

@denriddy: I still say your reasoning (and reading comprehension) skills are lacking and you're not as informed as you'd like to believe. You, and too many like you, seem to want to believe that "Muslim" and "American" are mutually exclusive. That is a fiction. Just as fictitious is your bigoted conclusion that "Muslim" is synonymous with "terrorist", "anti-American", "xenophobic", and "theocratic".

If we are to follow your logic, "American" also fits the bill. I'm sure you are aware of our country's storied history of terrorism, genocide/democide, forced migration, slavery, and institutionalized racial and religious discrimination.

If, by chance, you missed that pertinent information in your readings, get thee to a local public library. It is only patriotic that you should review our history. This li'l bit should get you started: indigenous peoples, indentured servitude, chattel slavery, Jim Crow laws, the Paddy, the controversy around JFK's election, 19th-century anti-immigration, Nordicism/Germanism, labor unions, child labor, women's suffrage, Japanese American Internment, the KKK, the Civil Rights Acts of 1866-1991, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, gay marriage bans, and eugenics.

After you (plural) have adequately familiarized yourself with these subjects in Americana and perused the Bill of Rights once more, we may continue this exchange on Islam.

By:vinemp on 7/15/10 at 8:10

Addendum: You may also want to review Manifest Destiny, the Indian Removal Act of 1830, and the Trail of Tears.